Gulf Volunteer

Turtles and Other Wildlife Being Burned

2010-06-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just received a report that fishermen hired by BP to collect turtles are no longer allowed within three or four miles of the Deepwater Horizon rig site. They say this area is where they have found most turtles and that BP is now gathering turtles and oil with skimmers and burning them off.

Still I wonder why the criminal is still in charge of the crime scene.

----

In other news, I made the trip to Grand Isle with the Nola Oil Spill Cleanup and Animal Rescue Meetup group. We are all trained either as emergency responders or hazwopers and are prepared to take cleanup efforts into our own hands if the response does not improve. Grand Isle has uncleaned oil and I can only imagine how bad it is on remote islands with no human inhabitants. If BP and the government are willing to respond this slowly on an inhabited island, they may be doing nothing at all offshore. It is sickening.

FAIL

2010-06-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

ABC News is reporting today that only 151 boats are skimming oil in the entire Gulf of Mexico. These boats are small.

Reports are coming in stating that there are barrier islands off Louisiana full of oiled pelicans with no responders in sight.

Volunteer Opp.

2010-06-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is seeking volunteers for beach clean-up.

Beach Clean-Up in Cameron Parish
Saturday, June 5, 2010
8:30 am to 3:00 pm

This is to remove debris/garbage before the oil comes in. I am not 100% sure why this is necessary (isn't it good for debris to soak up oil before it is removed?), but if you want to participate:

Sign up here:
https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/316/personal2.asp?formid=event&c=9710393

More Nothing

2010-05-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

I sat in Venice all day again today and no birds came in. I was volunteering with Audubon, and my job was to unload birds from boats and load them onto trucks to go get cleaned. There are fears that many birds are simply diving into oil and drowning, never to be found.

Volunteer with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade

2010-05-26T18:51:00.001-07:00

There will be a training on how to deploy a balloon and kite 1,000 feet into the air with a camera attached to document the coast. The resolution is much better than that of Google's maps.

Wednesday, June 2
5pm
City Park in front of the New Orleans Museum of Art

A View Below the Surface

2010-05-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/25/bp-does-not-want-you-to-see/#comments

Live Video Feed of Oil Flow

2010-05-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

The New York Times reported on May 5, 2010, that BP plugged one of three "leaks."

Birds

2010-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been told that the International Bird Rescue Research Center has boats on the water daily out of Venice, La. Here is a link to their "Bird Care in Numbers" Web page.

Don't Help! You'll Only Get in the Way of the Professionals.

2010-05-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

In light of past events and the government-corporate bureaucracy's inability to stop the oil, the above phrase should never be uttered again. It is my experience, both here and in Haiti, that determined individuals get more accomplished (pound-for-pound) than do slow-moving bureaucracies that lack action-oriented leadership.

Our governments seldom create large armies of volunteers. They act in a bubble, in a vacuum and do not consider the people-power that they can tap at any time. It is another symptom of the government being less and less "we the people" and more and more a separate parent-like figure caring for its "kids" -- us.

The lack of urgency in Venice, Louisiana, is still surprising to me. I believe BP can be blamed for underestimating the problem from the start (or flat-out lying about the true scope of the disaster) and the government can be blamed for accepting BP's estimates. The media went ahead and repeated these estimates for so long that the true scope of the Deepwater Horizon disaster was grossly underestimated by our society for more than a month. Instead of preparing for battle, we sat back and watched BP try to fix the problem.

Venice -- and all coastal towns -- should be swarming with volunteers, federal agents, state experts, local captains and tons of boats. This is just not the case, and it is because of BP's public underestimations and lack of leadership in government. There is no shortage of privately-owned boats in Louisiana, and the people have a strong sense of community and determination without which living in coastal Louisiana would be impossible. It is time for people to put their boats in the water and to stop this oil from hitting the islands, marshes and estuaries. The "professionals" seem to always have trouble thinking outside the box and can't seem to act when time is running out.

If BP would have been honest from the start, the government and the media would have told the public the true seriousness of the situation and the public and the government would be more prepared to deal with this impending tragedy.

That being said, why are the Gulf islands not filled with people cleaning them? The government has had more than a month now to prepare for the inevitable, and it still looks grossly under-prepared.

---

On Monday, I volunteered for Audubon in Venice. My job was to care for birds brought on boats and to load them onto trucks taking them to Fort Jackson, where Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research (the organization leading the bird cleanup) is stationed. No birds came in while I was there, from 10:30am to 5:00pm.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Audubon says it's a good thing. But how many boats are out looking for oiled birds? Are people entering islands full of birds to save oiled birds or are they only looking for lone birds floating, unable to fly or swim? Judging by the response to the disaster so far, I have little faith that everything is being done to bring oiled birds to shore. As I sat in Venice, filling out a crossword puzzle with my phone right next to me, I felt helpless. If I had a boat I would be out with a GPS looking for oil and for oiled birds, dolphins, and other wildlife.

-----

In other news, Loyola chemistry professor Kurt Birdwhistell says the dispersant is nearly as toxic as the oil itself. In other words, BP is adding to the toxic mess with all of its dispersant use. And this dispersant is causing the toxic oil (and the toxic dispersant) to go underwater and affect fish and crabs.

Hair Booms Won't Be Used

2010-05-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

News sources are reporting that British Petroleum will not use the hair booms we have been making. In other news, oil is coming ashore in Louisiana in greater quantities than it has previously, and things seem to be getting worse.

Hair and Hope

2010-05-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

First, I know its a cheesy title. But I can't help it -- these were definitely the themes of the day.

For instance, John and I encountered the girl who made the below video while continuing the boom-making effort at the Ritz.

Karol Escobar struck us as a kindred spirit -- someone horrified by the oil fiasco's implications and seeking out creative ways to help. Filming a reality show brought her to New Orleans, but she also came prepared to help with a bag of hair that she'd just shaved off her own head. We met her as she spent her free time filming for a documentary to promote Matter of Trust and the boom-making process.

We had a colorful encounter: a buzzed-headed film student videotaping a tall bearded dude and a short girl in a floral dress stuffing human hair into pantyhose.

As John and I prepare to leave New Orleans to visit family in Georgia, this last experience seems indicative of our whole stay here. The city is infused with a "do what you can to make it right" spirit that has to be born out of Katrina. Even as oil washed up in the local marshes today, crawfish boiled, jazz bands boomed, and volunteers did what they could.

I'm excited to see what ways Rene and the other awesome folks down here find to make this place a little less oily. Hopefully we can continue to do our part from the road, especially to sort out the fact from the fiction as the disaster unfolds and keep telling the stories of those who are taking the gulf's future into their own hands.

--Jamie

Support this Group's Benefit Concert for the Gulf!

2010-05-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

DANNY O'FLAHERTY celtic balladeer

Friday May 21st
7:30 p.m.
The Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge
8470 Goodwood Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA
(map)

In concert to benefit LEAN and Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and their continued oil spill response efforts. Louisiana Environmental Action Network along with the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper are working tirelessly to monitor and analyze the environmental impacts of the BP disaster, collect and distribute important information to the public and provide much needed personal protective equipment to fisherman and workers in danger of being exposed to hazardous environments while dealing with this unfortunate incident.

Please come out to hear some great Irish music and support our local efforts help alleviate some of the impact from this catastrohpic event.

for more info. contact: michael@leanweb.org

www.leanweb.org

www.lmrk.org

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2010-05-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Three news items for your viewing pleasure:

#1. The Good - It appears that BP has chosen to use the hair booms we've put so much time and effort into making. Hooray! Now if they can just convince the coast guard...

#2 The Bad - Heavy oil has finally hit the marshes in Louisiana, apparently all the booms laid out didn't do a whole lot to stop it judging from the pictures

#3 The Ugly - Turns out that BP could have used several other disperants that were much less toxic AND much more effective than the one they've already dumped well over a half-million gallons of into the gulf. Turns out the dispersant company has corporate ties to BP. Color me unsurprised.

Petitioning with Sierra Club

2010-05-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

We found out at the last second that another ride was heading down to Venice to do more outreach on behalf of the Bucket Brigade (in our experience by far the most organized and motivated organization down here), though we were ultimately unable to get down there. It's lame not having transportation. So, after a morning of blogging and trying to figure out where the money for the Gulf Aid show was going, we headed out to the Sierra Club to do more work in town. This time, we'd be helping them with a letter writing campaign (essentially a petition) to try to get more federal resources down to the gulf and to get a moratorium on offshore drilling.

I don't think I'd have the patience to work the political side of things like Sierra Club has become so known for - I'd rather get my hands dirty. At their offices, we walked down a long hallway lined by offices with people dressed nicely sitting behind desks typing away and shuffling through papers. The volunteer coordinator gave us our shirts, clipboards, pens and a stack of pre-written postcards asking the Obama Administration to both put all possible efforts towards mitigating the current crisis and reinstate the 2008 moratorium on offshore drilling. Off we went.

I don't like to be pestered, and I don't like to pester people, but in this case I'd make an exception. We stood on the sidewalks outside a big, free open-air concert to try to get people to put their information on the postcards which would get sent to the white house and - hopefully - try to persuade him to not do offshore drilling anymore. Jamie and I got the whole gambit of responses as we tried to get people to sign the cards. One the one side, a number of people were eager to do it and thanked us for coming down. On the other side, we ran into a number of people working for the oil companies in various capacities that respectfully declined our offer (of course). And then there were the outliers: one girl yelled "Drill, Baby, Drill!" in my face and walked away, for example.

All in all, we got about sixty people or so to sign the cards. When we couldn't take it anymore, we took off our Sierra Club T-shirts to enjoy the last act in the concert before a night out on the town listening to a great honky-tonk band.

Gulf Aid -- Who Gets the Aid?

2010-05-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Rene just brought to my attention an interesting blog the Bucket Brigade posted regarding the recent Gulf Aid concert, which was designed to fundraise monies to assist those negatively affected by the oil disaster. The blog, which you can read here, explains that the Bucket Brigade was almost asked to leave the show (for rather vague reasons involving targeting British Petroleum through one of their signs and asking for donations). It also raises the concern that the recipients of the Gulf Aid fundraiser have yet to be named.

Before spreading that somewhat concerning info, I called to check in with WWOZ General Manager and even Co-Founder David Freedman.

Freedman verified that recipients of the Gulf Aid fundraiser haven't yet been chosen: "We're trying to get on the ground, visit these groups, and widen our pool so we consider all the possible groups [that are worthy]," he said.

Freedman is one of the three members of the Gulf Aid board, along with plumbing contractor Joe Jaeger and Sidney Torres of SDT Waste and Debris Services.

Freedman said the final tally of the funds raised through last Saturday's concert wasn't completed yet, and declined to give an estimate of what those funds might be. He did estimate that the amount -- and likely the names of the beneficiaries -- will be released Friday.

According to a Times-Picayune article, the board is using the following criteria in selecting those beneficiaries:

"The foundation's creators are hoping to support organizations that meet the foundation's three standards: Money must go as directly as possible to beneficiaries, not operating costs; it must help either wildlife or people whose livelihoods were directly affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill; and it must target needs not being addressed by government..."

It sounds like the board could use some help finding the best -- and most legitimate -- groups to donate to. To encourage the Gulf Aid group to donate to an organization you think deserves it most, email David Freedman at david@wwoz.org.

Also, stay tuned as we continue to cover how much Gulf Aid raised and where the money will go.

---Jamie

Stories from the Gulf

2010-05-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

The shrimpers and oystermen docked in Venice's harbor were on stand-by Tuesday. Canary and robin-colored booms hung around their boats like tinsel, and engines idled as they waited for British Petroleum's OK-- not to fish, but to tote the booms into the gulf and wrangle oil.

"If that oil didn't spill, everyone would be shrimping," said one young fisherman who's name we won't mention in case BP's pr men are skimming the media for contract breakers. His parents had sunk themselves into debt buying a shrimping vessel last year. Their hopes of retiring to Vietnam seemed distant as they awaited work from BP.

According to the old contract, BP is paying vessels $2,000 a day -- plus some money for each crew member -- to help move booms around the oil slick. The fishermen we spoke with estimate this is a little less then they'd make shrimping. But nobody knows how good the shrimping will be this season. So many took a $5000 buyout from BP, where they promised not to shrimp for the rest of the season. There have been some reports that BP is taking their pay for helping with booms out of that $5,000. The people we spoke with didn't report that being the case -- yet. Our interviewee said he was ready to raise a fuss if that did happen, on behalf of his parents and the other Vietnamese who speak little English.

For most of the fishermen in the harbor, this was their first day working with booms. With little training, they waited -- hoping to be called to sea.

"When something like this happens, most of us don't know what to do," said the young man we talked with. "My parents owe a lot of money, and they can't just go get an office job."

---

Further north on the eerily quiet road to Venice, shrimpers talked about stinky water -- a different, more chemicly kind of stink than that of the oil, boat parts and marshy detritus they're used to.

So far the shrimping season hasn't been affected this far north -- but shrimper Roland Phillips worried about the future.

"This is something that's going to come back for years to come," he said. "Those chemicals could affect the fish years from now." He was standing under green nets on his small vessel, waiting for a friend to fix his engine problems. A fisherman all his life, he planned to get as much shrimping in this season -- as the future seemed very uncertain.

--Jamie

Venice Report

2010-05-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday felt very much like we were chasing a ghost. Without a boat to get us on the water, we did not see any oil apart from the typical amount floating at marinas.

Most people I encountered on the Gulf coast did not share much information about what they have seen, smelled, or experienced.

When I asked a fisherman if he was going to deploy the boom on his boat, he replied with a “how you doin'?” that suggested he was not going to say anything further. He walked by me swiftly. I think this lack of information-sharing has something to do with contracts the fishermen signed with BP in order to work on the cleanup effort and their fear of losing the money BP is paying them. I know Jamie had better luck speaking to people and will probably share more info soon.

SUVs on the way to Venice, La., suggested that the federal government was responding to the pending disaster, but everything in Venice was calm -- almost eerily so. A few fishing boats had booms on board, but only one boat left the port in the hour or so that we were at the marina.

On our way back to New Orleans, WWL radio reported that petroleum was discovered inside the marshes of Plaquemines Parish, between Venice and New Orleans.

To the Gulf

2010-05-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

We're headed to the gulf -- Venice-- this morning to speak with folks who are reporting incidents to the bucket brigade. According to the map, Greenpeace reports oil sludge making landfall just south of Venice.

Stay tuned for reports on that and the human interest side of the story as the day progresses. In the meantime, the morning news roundup:

The NOAA's forecast for today of the oil's trajectory shows it remaining offshore, for the most part.

Obama calls for a commission to investigate the causes of the oil disaster. If only there were a commission to PREVENT this kind of thing.

--Jamie

Heads up Florida

2010-05-17T19:58:00.001-07:00

The oil may be headed your direction...

The Bucket Brigade

2010-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today our trio had an exciting meeting with the Bucket Brigade's volunteer coordinator, Clayton Shelvin. A performing arts major, he was thrown into the oil fiasco shortly after taking the job. He and the other Bucket Brigade members face the challenge of managing a flood of eager volunteers with a small staff team, and a newfound spotlight put on them from news sources around the country.

The Bucket Brigade started as a grassroots effort to monitor air quality near oil refineries through citizen reporting. Residents downwind of refineries are given special buckets to gather air samples to send in for testing. It gives communities a sense of power to be able to hold the companies populating "cancer alley" accountable for their emissions. It's one thing to say, "Our air isn't clean" - it's another thing entirely to lay a printout in front of a oil executive and point out that their emissions of Hydrogen Sulfide are twenty-five times higher than the legal limit.

Since the oil began flowing, the Bucket Brigade has switched gears and now uses that independent spirit and infrastructure to monitor the oil disaster's effects on the local eco-system and residents. As BP holds the reigns to most of the official data and cleanup efforts, many have expressed a sense of frustration at both the company's lack of direction and its unwillingness to share information, such as exactly how much oil is spewing from its pipeline.

To counter this, the Bucket Brigade is working on a crisis map documenting various aspects of the disaster's effects on the local people, with everything from oil sightings to fishermen out of work being reported by the local people and posted on an interactive map on the internet. You can even send a text message to post on the map. The information is so current that even the government has begun to use it to keep abreast of new developments.

We walked out of their office with a new sense of purpose: tomorrow, we're headed to Venice to document what's going on, specifically trying to talk to the out of work fishermen to show the human side of all that's going on down here.

--John

Gulf AId and Crawfish

2010-05-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday John and I had planned to volunteer at Gulf Aid, a benefit concert for the oil disaster. A friend of Rene's invited us to help spread the word about the Bucket Brigade, which seems to be one of the most active grassroots organizations.

The Bucket Brigade asks locals to map any news of the oil they observe -- odors, dead marine life, etc. The resulting map of the disaster's effects has been used by Google and others. A great

organization, a great cause -- we were stoked to help spread the word.

At the last minute, though, we heard that the friend would not be attending said concert and there wasn't much need for us after all. This seems to be the nature of volunteering with the oil disaster. Tons of people want to help out, and tons of organizations want that help -- but aren't quite organized yet, or don't know how to put untrained volunteers to work.

We were disappointed, but the day was not a total bust. A Bucket Brigade leader told us there'd be plenty to do in the coming week and invited us to stop by today (Monday). I spent yesterday afternoon creating this blog, accompanied by the funky music of the benefit concert beating across the airwaves on the local radio station.

"If we don't help ourselves, who will help us?" said local musician Allen Toussaint, echoing the spirit of the last-minute fund raiser and much of the volunteer efforts.

Then, we attended a giant crawfish boil to celebrate one of Renee's friend's graduation from law school. As good music continued to pour into the streets and crawfish got shucked like they were peanuts, conversation turned to the disaster. Waving crustaceans to emphasize our point, shouting a bit heatedly into the street, it was clear we were all angry, concerned and ready to do something.

--Jamie

Human Hair and Pantyhose

2010-05-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

John, Rene and I spent this Saturday stuffing hair -- human and otherwise -- into pantyhose. The idea? To create giant oil sponges that will be suspended from booms in the gulf.

An Alabama hairdresser first dreamed up the idea that human hair is a great oil absorber. Dubious? Just observe your nearest greasy-haired adolescent in need of a shower. The nonprofit Matter of Trust put the idea into practice in California, and is now employing it here in the gulf.

We volunteered through the organization Bayou Rebirth, which was collaborating with the larger effort going on at the downtown Ritz Carlton and organized through Matter of Trust.

Here's a video that shows just how effective these "hair sausages" can be.

The hair stuffs quickly into nylons, and the fifteen or so volunteers who showed up blew through the available hair in no time. We spent the rest of the day calling local salons and groomers for more supplies. The take home message seemed to be: we need more supplies. Anyone with access to hair or nylons can donate them through matteroftrust.org.

While the Bayou Rebirth effort seemed a bit disorganized and it's unclear how volunteers will be utilized in the future, the Ritz Carlton is encouraging employees to help create booms -- so supplies are definitely needed.

And you can sign up to help out with boom building and other activities through Hands On New Orleans.

--Jamie

The Goal

2010-05-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

(photo thanks to oceanworld.tamu.edu)

What can I do to mitigate this disaster?

That's the question thousands of people have been asking since British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oiling rig exploded on April 20, creating a pipeline rupture that is spewing something like 70,000 barrels of oil reach day into the Gulf of Mexico.

Not knowing the answer to that question, but finding ourselves with free time in between jobs, my fiance John and I headed to New Orleans to stay with a friend, Rene, and volunteer our help. That was Wednesday, May 14 -- nearly a month after the pipeline ruptured. And while it seems that an Exxon-Valdez oil spill is being spewed out every three days or so, there's few options for the thousands of people waiting to help.

Our volunteer trio has scoured the web, utilized Rene's local resources, and filled out countless volunteer applications -- to little avail. Most leads direct us back to a BP phone number or require a $350 dollar, two week hazardous materials training. We're not alone --everywhere we go, we encounter people who want to help - - but aren't exactly sure how.

With this blog we hope to provide a resource for others who want to do something. Stay tuned for news on the disaster, our personal attempt to help out, volunteer opportunities and more -- and please let us know if we're missing anything!